Chapter 15

The three sat quietly as he settled and nodded. The sound man counted down from five and the reporter smiled.

“Today, I’m sitting in the dining room of the Stoneleigh Community Club. With me are Willow Rose, Gina Summer, and Jacob Epstein, three members of the quartet, Summer Rose, who have that successful album, ‘Coventry Carpentry’. I came here thinking that it would be an easy job to interview teenagers who had managed to find a niche in the market and would be unlikely to maintain that level of success. What I found were three, very serious musicians who have more than that album up their sleeves.”

He looked across the table and smiled.

“I walked into this room to find Willow Rose teaching a group of elderly ladies how to sing as a choir. Not only were they singing the sort of things that you would expect carollers to sing, but they were learning complex choral techniques that you hear from professionals. A few of those singers were once professional, and my interview with them will leave you with tears in your eyes.”

He turned to Willow to start the interview. There was the usual questions that she had answered with the magazine writer, but he had done his research, so spoke to her and Gina about the work with the Cathedral, which led on to Willow playing the organ in the BBC show on Christmas Eve. The girls told him that it was all part of being at Blue Coat and that Jacob would be starring in a guitar concerto later in the year. That led to Jacob talking about growing up on the farm.

They shamelessly plugged the club and the dinner dances, the website for the Cathedral and the link to see the services, as well as the band website and the album. When asked about sales, they could say, in all honesty, that they didn’t know how it stood at the moment. They had over a half-an-hour talking, and Willow thought that it had been a good discussion, even if it would be edited for transmission.

As the sound and camera men were packing their equipment, Willow suggested that the reporter bring his partner to the dinner dance on the Saturday night.

“You’ll have to see my Dad behind the bar to book one of these tables. I expect that there will be a group from the magazines coming along. The band is pretty good. In the week after, we will be in this room with our own sound and video team to record quite a bit of new material. It could end up as our next albums. We will supply vision and sound later, after we have processed it, so no cameramen of yours. If you leave your card, I’ll email you with the day and time. Please keep this to yourself, as we can’t deal with any fans here.”

He grinned.

“I’ll do that. I might book a table and bring some friends along. Will you be here if they want a word?”

“You bet. I wouldn’t miss the event. I live around the corner and it’s just a short walk for a good meal and a good night.”

The reporter went to the bar, spoke to Ashley and the crew left. Gina started laughing.

“You really are wicked, Willow.”

Jacob looked bewildered.

“What did I miss?”

“We had an interview with a reporter and photographer from a teen magazine on Monday evening. They were clueless about who we are. Even suggested that we were a ‘manufactured group’. They might be here for the dinner dance as well. They don’t know that it will be us on stage. We’re going to have to decide what we’re going to play. We can’t do anything from Kansas or Journal, so it will have to be from that big repertoire of pop and folky stuff early on, then some dance music, ending with some of the album. We don’t have to do the lot anymore, so should pick the best.”

Wendy came over to them.

“It’s time you were asleep, my girl. Have you finished the plotting to take over the world?”

“Just sorting out what we’ll play at the dinner dance. I expect that both lots of reporters will come along when we record the next album, here. I think you’re right. Goodnight, friends. Thanks for helping out with the singing.”

She had a hug from Gina, and a hug and kiss from Jacob.

“How did you get here, darling?”

“Rach brought me. She’ll be back soon to take me home. She wanted to stay for the interview but had something she had to do with one of her friends in the village. I think that they may be planning a wedding.”

Willow walked home with her mother, arm in arm.

“You know, my darling daughter, my tear ducts have never worked so hard as they have these last few months. Tonight was so emotional when Margaret sang. I remember seeing her on the TV when she was a professional. A lovely voice then, and still as lovely without her old range. Have you any idea what you’re going to do with that group?”

“Don’t know, Mum. They need to learn a lot of material, with a few that should learn to read music if they want to do more. If we keep it local, they’re almost good enough now.”

It didn’t take her long to get to sleep but was sure that she was getting stronger by the day. The area around her groin was itching a bit, but there wasn’t any pain. Thursday, she devoted the whole day to reading up on old lessons and looking at the file that had been sent to her with a small amount of new work.

On Friday morning, she was back in the car with her father, heading for the clinic. He asked her how she could convince the two media teams to come to the next dinner dance.

“They both booked a full table, and there have been quite a few who have also booked to make sure they get a seat. What did you offer them, some sort of exclusive?”

“All we offered, Dad, is a good meal and a good night. They don’t even know who the band is, so it may be a surprise when we start playing. I’m not sure what they have in mind for me today, and they’ve told me that they’ll send me home by taxi. See you when you get home for dinner.”

“See you then, sweetie. You’ll have a quieter weekend.”

“Just the Cathedral on Sunday. You can take your laptop to the club and watch me playing on the big screen. The service there doesn’t start until the one in St. Marys is almost over.”

When he stopped outside the main doors, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and got out. She waved as he drove away, then turned and went into the clinic. Over the next hour, she was checked over and had the dressing removed. After the few stitches came out, she discovered the joy of her first time with her legs lifted in stirrups and having the doctor giving her a very detailed vaginal inspection.

That was followed by more than an hour of instruction of how to look after her new equipment and how to make sure it was clean. After that was something of a surprise, being something that she had never heard of. She learned how to dilate, when to dilate, and instructed to contact the doctor when she started to enjoy it, which would mean that the nerves were starting to work as they should.

Back in the outside, her new pack of different size dilators in her bag, she waited for the taxi to come for her. When she got home, she stripped and had a long shower, making sure that she soaped everywhere. She washed her hair and then dried off. With her hair in a towel turban, she stood and looked at her naked body in the big mirror.

Except for the continuing bruising, she looked like a girl. The marks around her torso were now fading and she felt really good about herself. So good that she laid on her bed with one of the dilators and tried it out while rubbing her budding breasts. The result was more than she expected and felt very good indeed. She decided that it was far too early to tell the doctor that there was a little more feeling than she had expected; a few more sessions like that were called for to make sure that the data was genuine.

For the rest of the day, she wrote a new song about a girl finding her sexuality for the first time, recorded the vocal and keyboard track, then filed it as something to save in the same file where ‘Fractured’ was. She dressed in the new underwear she had brought for herself and put on one of her better skirts and tops. When Wendy got home, Willow suggested that a meal at the steakhouse might be nice. Her treat as the celebration of a successful operation and aftermath.

“Oh! How successful was that?”

“Almost earthmoving. Mum.”

Wendy gave her a big hug.

“Congratulations, girl. We won’t tell your father that little detail.”

When Ashley got home, he only had time to change into casual clothes before they were on their way to the table that Wendy had booked. He wouldn’t hear of Willow paying for the meal, he was so happy that the women in his life were happy.

On Saturday afternoon, Wendy drove them to the Cathedral. Willow played through the hymns first, finding that she had much more freedom of leg movement without the covering. Then, she worked through the Evensong, with some singing along and the choir coming in when she got to their material.

Before they left, she went to speak to the choirmaster.

“Excuse me, sir, can I ask a question?”

“Certainly, Willow. What do you want to know?”

“I’ve been working with a group of church ladies in Stoneleigh. I had noticed that they stood together to sing the hymns and suggested that they may enjoy forming a group choir. It started with five, and now we have fourteen, including a few retired professionals who live in the village. I’ve taken them through straight out group singing, to alternating lines, and last week we worked on singing together but using different words. It worked out quite well.”

“Right. Who are these retired members?”

She named them and the choirmaster smiled.

“You have three of the best in their day. I haven’t heard of what came of Margaret. One season she was there and the next she was gone. I worked with her for a while.”

“She lost the use of her legs, and now uses a motorised wheelchair. She’s now an alto but has a wonderful voice. She sang us one of the Airs from Messiah. There was a TV crew there at the time, come to interview me as one of Summer Rose. Where I’m stuck is that they all show promise, but I have no idea where to take them from here. I’m in the orchestra but haven’t a clue of how you turn singers into a choir.”

“I would love to help you, especially seeing Margaret again. Where and when do you get together?”

“It’s Wednesday evenings, from about seven, at the Stoneleigh Community Club. If you come along, I can guarantee that you’ll be fed if you get there early. Those of us that work for club activities get a meal thrown in. My Dad is behind the bar and pulls a mean pint.”

“Thank you for asking your question. I’ll come along with a couple of dozen books for them. It outlines the home training and has about fifty choir songs to extend their skills, with the music for piano. I expect that your original ladies don’t read music, so there are phonetic notations that help them follow, over the music. I’ve found that most people can pick up the way the music goes by following that. When I see the Bishop, I’ll tell him what you’re doing. He was a great fan of Margaret when she was singing.”

“Thank you, sir. I look forward to hearing the choir tomorrow. I’ve told my father to take his laptop to the club and show the stream on the big screen.”

As they were driving home, Wendy asked what the discussion was about.

“I asked him about teaching singers to be a choir. He says that he’ll come along next week and bring some training manuals with him for the ladies. He worked with Margaret at one time and is keen to see her again.”

“Will he help you with the village ladies?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to see what he thinks after hearing them sing.”

When they got home, Ashley had a big grin on his face.

“The old bed is in the Crate Castle, darling, and the new one has been set up. All it needs is making. As a mere male, that’s way above my pay grade.”

“We’ll do that, love. You’ll have to buy us dinner at the club, though.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but I agree.”

Wendy and Willow went up to the master bedroom and made up the bed with fresh sheets. Wendy had bought new ones when they were shopping for the bed. It looked very nice when it was finished.

“That looks good enough to sleep in, Mum.”

“Yes, my girl, and it won’t wake you up in the night, either. We made sure of that in the store.”

“You tried to make it squeak in the store and weren’t arrested!”

“We stayed fully dressed, my girl. The sales lady stood by us as we bounced on it.”

“That would have been a demonstration bed, Mum. It may have been desqueaked. If this is out of the box, who knows what sounds it makes.”

They went to the club, where there was a good crowd. Willow was asked, by some, if she was playing, and she told everyone to come back next Saturday for the dinner dance. She added that she was playing in the Cathedral in the morning and didn’t want to wear her fingers out.

That night, she didn’t hear a thing from her parents room, except for a muffled cry from her mother that she could now relate to, having had a similar feeling herself.

The Sunday went as usual. She played for the service, now seeing the three views on the monitor and singing along as she played. The Cathedral was packed, and the singing was strong. When her mother took them into the shopping centre, the dress shops had a lot of spring fashions in, and they came away with more additions for both their wardrobes for when the sun was out.

The Evensong was well attended, and the singing was good, led by the choir. Willow sat quietly as they went home, thinking about the week to come, then turned to Wendy.

“It’s exam week, Mum. I expect that the orchestra session may be postponed to next half-term. We’ll find out tomorrow and let you know if we’ll be early every day.”

“Thanks, darling one. How do you feel about the exams?”

“I’m pretty good with the subjects, as I didn’t miss a lot of new material while I was away. I’ll be having a good talk with the band members about the dinner dance on Saturday, and I’ll try and get our band to the club one day in the holidays to run through what we’ll record. We have yet to set a date for that, so that will be a priority. If we set up to practise, we can leave it up for the recording.”

When they arrived home, Ashley was there.

“Just getting some papers together for Malcolm. He wants me to think about throwing my hat in the ring for the next election. Are you coming to the club?”

“Yes dear, any day I don’t have to cook is another day in paradise. Come along Willow, let’s freshen up and go eat.”

They had a quiet meal and then left Ashley working the bar to go home. Willow put another few pendants in her bag to give to Gina and their close friends. It felt a bit odd to be going back to school but knew that exam week would be different.

Monday, on the way, Gina told them that she had gone to the club after church to find vision of the Cathedral service being shown on the big screen. She said that a lot of parishioners may be visiting the Cathedral to experience it in person.

“While we were in the city on Saturday, Mum took me to that music store where you got your Nord. I bought one of my own, as well as one of those drum machines. I’ll bring my Yamaha to the club to lend it alongside yours. That way we won’t have to carry one in every show. We also went to a store, and I brought Mum a new sewing machine with computerised embroidery and all the attachments to go with it.”

Willow waited until lunch to bring the boxes out of her bag. One, she gave to Gina.

“These are the new pendants. I had some sent to me and have one on now, under the blouse. I was thinking of giving one to Barbara and Diane, who were the first girls that I played with from the school.”

“Excellent thinking. Hey, Barb, grab your sister and see what we have for you.”

The squealing sisters brought other girls around. Gina told them that the pendants were now on the band website. Willow looked at her friend.

“You’re a fast learner, friend.”

“What can I say, I have the best teacher in front of me.”

Willow asked Gina what day, next week, she thought would be good for the recording, and they agreed on Wednesday, with setting up on Tuesday for practise. Before leaving for the next exam, Willow went to see the other band members to tell them of the arrangement, asking them to be at the club on Saturday afternoon so they could run through the first playing of Journey. Then she went to where the seniors were sitting to tell the tech guys that they could test the gear on Tuesday for recording Wednesday. Then she gave the Gees that information, telling them what equipment would already be on stage.

As they were heading back to the next exam, they saw a notice that the orchestra session was cancelled. The rest of the day went smoothly, and the three were quietly confident that they had done well. On Tuesday, it was Willow’s turn on the chapel organ, with Reverend Jack giving praise for another good half-term and hopes that they will all be back after the holidays, refreshed and ready to learn more.

That evening, Willow emailed the two media contacts to tell them to be at the club at ten, Wednesday morning. The TV reporter emailed back to tell her that their interview was going to air on Saturday, in the local news segment after the five ‘o’clock national news; and that he had received some good words from his superiors.

Wednesday evening, the choir meeting was full of joy. Gina and Maisie arrived, carrying the Yamaha, and set it up. Willow helped get an amp down. All of her ladies arrived, and Willow asked her mother if she could join in, having such a good voice. She said that she would if Maisie would, and Maisie laughed.

“Gina has already got me to try out with her, Wendy. So, line up.”

The choir master came in, followed by three members of his choir, all carrying boxes. He put his on a table and went to Margaret.

“Tom, what a lovely surprise. It’s been too long. Why are you here?”

“Willow asked for help, Margaret, and as soon as she said that you were in the choir, I just couldn’t stay away. I have three members of the Cathedral Choir here to help out. The boxes are full of the basic handbook on choir singing, from easy to hard, with the music. Willow has told me that there are some of you who don’t read music, so we’ll have one of ours stand beside each one of you to show you where you are on the page. Gina, can you help there as well. The first thing we have to do is find out just what your ranges are.”

Over the next half an hour, one of the visitors filled in each member of the choir’s details as Willow went through the scale for each one in turn, finding that Wendy was quite an effective mezzo-soprano. After that, Tom conducted them as they worked through the songs that Willow had already put them through, nodding as he heard them in full voice for the first time. After that, they worked on the first song in the book, with Willow playing, Tom conducting, and those who could read music helping those who couldn’t. They were passable on the second try, which brought a smile to Tom’s face.

“I think that this is enough for now. In the future, I’ll be here on Wednesday evenings to take you to the next level. There will be others in my choir who will come along to help out.”

Before he left, Gina told him that she would be coming to the Cathedral on Saturday morning, and not the usual afternoon.

The rest of the week was more of the exams, and they had finished by Friday lunchtime. The three friends went to one of the rehearsal rooms, where there was a piano. Willow played the piano, while they all sang quietly; songs from Journey and a few others that they could fit into the dinner dance set.

They were working on an old standard when Mister Bamborough walked in.

“I thought I’d find you here in the break after exams. How do you think you got on?”

They all said that they thought that they had done enough.

“More than enough, if your last results are anything to go by. I’ve been looking at that website of the band. We do have an interest with a share of some of the content that was originally school intellectual property. I believe that you’re all doing very well out of it. I’m starting to wonder if there are any thoughts of touring and destroying your schooling.”

“No thoughts of that, sir. We had a couple of interviews last week; one for a magazine and one for the TV. We told both that we were determined to go through to university. I believe that the TV one is going to air on the local news on Saturday, after the national bulletin. Hopefully, it will be in the early part so we can see it before heading for the dinner dance.”

“My wife and I plan to attend that. I have to say that the experience of performing live has increased the skills of the wind players, as well as the rest of you. It will be good to see you play, again. Do you have any new material?”

Gina laughed.

“We have a whole new album, sir, all written by Willow and expanded by the rest of the band. I’ve heard Willow play the whole thing, with just her and the piano. How about you let Mister Bamborough hear ‘Finding a Friend’.

Willow smiled at her friend and started playing the piano intro, then singing the song. It was enough to make the teacher inwardly draw breath. When she finished, he let it out.

“That was wonderful, Willow.”

“That’s what some of the other students used to call me, sir. Jacob told me that there was ‘Wonderful Willow’ going around behind my back. I nearly came to school in a mask and a cape.”

“Totally deserved. When will we be hearing the rest of the album?”

“If you’re free next Wednesday morning, sir. We have planned a recording session at the club. It will be the G-Force with some material that Grant has written, and also the seven-piece version of Summer Rose. There will be others there, a reporter from a teen magazine and the TV reporter. We know that both outlets have booked tables for Saturday evening but are in the dark about the band that’s providing the entertainment.”

“Who is doing the recording?”

“The tech guys who do the school concerts. Before you ask, we have bought all our own equipment.”

“That’s quite an outlay, Willow. How are you funding that?”

“From the money I have from the Hikers album sales. I have enough to do that sort of thing, and we get to keep the equipment afterwards.”

“Will I be able to have a copy of the event?”

“We plan to have a quantity of CDs and DVDs cut after the guys have edited it. It will be up to our management to mass produce. We can let you have a sample of our material, but you’ll have to ask the Gees if they will give you theirs.”

“Exactly as it should be. Look, congratulations on what you’ve done this year, so far. The school is getting good publicity from the various endeavours that you’re involved in. I’ll see you, on stage, Saturday evening.”

After he left, they collected their things and went to wait for Wendy. Jacob gave Willow a cuddle.

“Saturday morning, Rach is taking me to that music store in Birmingham. I’m going to buy myself two guitars with my earnings. One will be a Martin, like the one I play here, and the other will be something like my old Fender, but a properly made acoustic with a pick-up inside. I’ll bring it along on Saturday afternoon to see how it sounds with the band. If it doesn’t fit, I’ll use the Fender. I’ve also been playing around with that effects box; I’ll try that out on Saturday afternoon as well.”

As they were dropped off, they two said that they were looking forward to playing again on Saturday, all sensing that it would be yet another watershed in their lives.

Marianne Gregory © 2025